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66 housing units, Hortaleza, Madrid

Hortaleza

Client

Public

Year

2009

Program

Housing

Status

Competition

Scale

7.000 m²

The Plot | THE SOLUTION

The Hortaleza district, with its diverse character, includes various types of housing such as the single family house, the perimeter block, and in greater numbers, the open block. The site of the competition, with an arch form, has a 3 m. drop from the east to the west. Adjacent to the plot, the social houses designed in the 60’s by the Spanish architect Fernando Higueras, survive.
Accommodating ourselves to the existing slope, we divide the program into 3 elements: a base that includes parking and commercial areas thus reducing excavation costs, (ground and first floor), a perforated platform that includes 10 houses (first and second floor) and a representative tower on the curved end of the site, which includes the remaining 56 houses (from the second through the tenth floor). The base is occupied with long houses of two floors with rooms oriented to inner courtyards. To the east, the tower is split into two volumes, in order to fit into the curved geometry of the plot; the floors vary in their ascent, creating double height voids allowing for cross ventilation, thus increasing the bioclimatic conditions of the tower.